r/mantis

Curious bugger

She has molted now twice in a month. We are going too fast have to lower the temp and calories

Hello all! So, I work at a pet store and a customer I met a few weeks ago delivered me a mantis! I've been wanting one for a while and have been working on a bioactive vivarium. It's pretty established, about a month old, with isopods, springtails, and soil mites. The enclosure is 7in wide and 12in tall.

The only issue is, thought I've been doing a fair bit of research on mantis care, I hadn't planned on getting one so small. I want to give it the best care I can. I'm not sure what instar it is. Full body is about an inch and a half. I bought some flightless fruit flies and a couple small crickets just in case. I want to know if it's safe to move to the vivarium or if I sure wait until it's a little bigger.

Thank you all so much!

Just noticed her like this, is she going to be ok? Should i help her?

Never seen one. Is this an egg sack? On stucco wall.

I’ve been wanting one of these guys since I was 8 and finally got the chance to adopt one! Does anyone have any advice on raising em? I know all the basics (diet, cage, habitat, etc.) but just wanna make sure she lives a happy life :)

Im worried that if i give her a cockroach that she gets overfed and dies. But im also worried that it might me a hairworm parasite? If you guys know what to do please let me know

The seller said that Ophelia is L5 but she looks much smaller for that!

Thank you!

Recently noticed quite a variety of mantids in my yard.

Here are our current residents!

(Residing in sunny Durban, South Africa)

A big mantis from last year! We found it on my grandma's head when she came from outside. :-)<

Here is my giant Asian mantis - newly an l4. It has been almost 48 hours and I’ve seen him
Wobbly move around the mesh lid to get some water after I misted. I am unsure when to offer food. I was going to wait until he was more active- is it ok if it is past 48 hours?

When I first got my pair of Chinese mantids, I fed them fruit flies from i2 - i5 (i shouldve started feeding bottle flies earlier). But a week into i4 for both my mantids I started feeding blue bottle flies as soon as they emerged from their pupae and the time intervals between my mantid's molts went from 4 weeks to 2 weeks. Between each molt I would document how much cm they grew and it was not as much as I expected. They are both currently i7 and males and they are both 4.6 cm and I do not believe they are subadult. Images shows the wing buds on one of them, my hand size, and hand to mantis comparison. I dont actually know if this is normal growth or if my mantids are smaller then avg because of my decisions

My l3 just molted! So excited! I have a few questions, about how long until he molts again?
Also, I just bought the enclosure posted above. I will modify it with screen mesh on top. Does this look good for l4 until adulthood?! If anyone has an enclosure this size please send pics of your setup! Thanks I am super excited!!

5 giant rainforest mantis nymphs, fingers crossed for a chance at breeding these pretty little ones.